Audrey was born at 8:01pm on August 27, 2010. She was a healthy, beautiful little baby with a head full of dark brown hair. She weighed in a 7lb. 6oz and 21in long. I decided to nurse her, and that went somewhat ok while we spent 5 days in the hospital. She was jaundice, so we had to stay a little longer than normal. We went home on a Tuesday at lunch time. On the way home Andrew was hungry, so we ordered him Logan's to-go and picked it up. Unfortunately Audrey was also hungry, and I hadn't quite got that whole nursing-thing down pat. Needless to say it was stressful.
When we made it home, we were greeted by our little cat, Ruby. I, being extremely sleep-deprived and somewhat emotionally-stressed, burst into tears when I saw Ruby. She was not exactly the most friendly of cats. In fact, I have two scars on my leg from when she attacked me one time. I did not want Ruby to be an inside cat anymore once Audrey arrived, but I agreed to try it out for Andrew's sake. Let's just say she was packed up and ready to go within 30 minutes of us being home. Thank you, Nana and Poppie for taking in Ruby for Audrey's sake. (And mine!) :D Bye-bye, Ruby!
My mom had offered to stay at night to help me with Audrey. I thought I was going to tough it out and try this whole mom-thing on my own at night. Hah, after going to bed for about 10 min and realizing that Audrey was going to keep crying, I called up Mimi. She came right on over and pretty much lived with us for 2 weeks. I will be forever and ever grateful to my sweet mom. She saved me, literally. Audrey cried all the time for her first 3 weeks of life. Let's just say nursing was not going good at all. At her 2 week check up she was below her discharge weight from when we left the hospital. That was not good at all! On her 3 week birthday, I decided to give up on nursing. That day I gave her nothing but formula. The child didn't make one cry the whole day! Dear God, thank you for restoring sanity into my life! Audrey was a completely different baby from that point on. Life was GOOD. Poor thing cried all the time because she wasn't getting enough to eat. I felt so guilty and horrible about it for a long time. I had a good support system around me about quitting nursing, but there were also those who were not supportive of my decision. I know now that I made the best decision for Audrey and for myself. To those of you who struggle with this decision, please know that it is okay not to breastfeed! Do what is best for you and baby. All situations are different. The main thing is that everyone is happy and healthy. That is my opinion. :) On that note, I sometimes wonder what I might do differently in the future. I literally cringe and feel nauseous at the thought of trying to breastfeed again with Baby #2. I do not know if I will do it again. I think I would rather have the stomach virus for 10 days straight or something. Haha, maybe not, but that is how bad it was for me. I know everyone says to at least try it. I might, I might not. I know one thing, I will do what I have peace about.
So, like I said before, Audrey was a different baby from 3 weeks old and on. She started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks. She smiled for the first time on her 6 week birthday day. She rolled over at 4 months old. She sat up at 6 months old. She crawled at 8 1/2 months. Still waiting on the first steps. :) First tooth was at 8 months I think. I would have to look that one up in her baby book. She was the most smiley little baby. She would smile at everyone. We would even joke because she would smile at our pest control man. She loved everyone, and of course everyone loved her. She was and still is just perfect. :) Or at least I think so! I might change my mind when she starts talking and rolling her little eyes at me. ;P
I never did have to put Audrey on a schedule. She did it all on her own. I have always tried hard to accommodate her sleeping schedule. I have read on how important it is for babies to get their sleep. By 2 months old, she was on a fairly structured napping and bedtime schedule. By four months, it was even more structured, and by 6 months it was like clockwork. Of course things would change along the way, but she was pretty consistent for the most part. There have always been those "off" days where things wouldn't go right ...and sometimes even "off" weeks. You learn as you go. Audrey has been pretty easy to figure out for the most part. I do not remember when she dropped her third nap. I want to say it was around 5-6 months. She dropped her second nap at 11 1/2 months. I have to say, I am loving the one nap a day. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it is so much more convenient! I don't have to rush home to get that first or second nap in, whichever the case was. She is even more rigid with this schedule that any others before. She is pretty consistent about sleeping at least an hour and a half. This week she has slept 2 hours+ almost every day this week. She goes down around 11-11:30 most days, but if it is 12ish or so, she will still take a good nap.
Her bedtime is still at 6:30. I think most nights it needs to be earlier than that, but it is so hard to cook, do bathtime, and bedtime all before 6:30. If it is before 6:30, well then happy day. Now that Andrew is back in school, the worship pastor at our church, and is teaching a night class at UNA (guitar class), his nights are so full. Don't get me wrong, he is extremely helpful. But he is also really busy, so I try to do it mostly on my own these days.
Audrey went for her one-year well check-up a couple of weeks ago. She weighed 20lbs 8oz and is 28 inches long. She is in the 40th percentile for her weight and 15th percentile for her height. Bless her heart, she doesn't have much of a chance for being tall! She actually only grew 1 inch from her six-month check-up.
New things Audrey is doing these days....
-She will sometimes wave when you tell her to wave. Not when you wave to her, just when you say it. She is understanding words more and their meanings.
-She will often point and wave at people when she sees them. I would get so tickled at her when we went to the beach because she would point and wave at people on our way back forth to the beach and pool. It was so cute!
-She isn't really saying any words yet. She has sometimes said "Ma-ma" or "mommy" and "Da-da", but not much on purpose. No "bye-bye" or anything else yet. However, she has a bursting jibberish language of her own that she frequently communicates with!
-The picky-eater gene that I expected her to have is blossoming every day. She has learned to dramatically shake her head "no" when she does not want to eat something. Her love for pureed baby food is dwindling...especially veggies. I have learned to hold her head with my hand and force the spoon in her mouth to make her eat her green beans, carrots, squash...whatever! Sounds cruel, but no worries I am gentle of course. She will eat it too if you can keep her head from swinging back and forth. Let's just say that I still have the magic touch. She always eats best when I feed her. I know part of her doing this is because she also wants to feed herself. That is how she eats most of the time. She has not loved steamed veggies, so the pureed kind is all that I have been able to get down her. I so want her to "learn to like" veggies again. Me and Andrew do not particularly like them. Well, we just plain don't like them at all. Does french fries count? ;) She loves cheese and milk. She will also eat ham, turkey, and chicken. I have tried a jelly sandwich and also a little PB with her jelly sandwich, but no such luck on that. She will eat whole wheat bread by itself. She also loves all fruits except peaches. She shivers when she eats peaches. She hates them! Her favorite fruit by far is bananas. She will usually start screaming at the sight of a banana, which means, "I WANT TO EAT THAT BANANA, MOMMY!!!!" I never can prepare one fast enough. Hmmm, there are other foods she likes, but I am drawing a blank. I need new ideas! There is only so much you can eat when you have 5 teeth.
-She has started climbing. Yesterday there was a box beside our coffee table. She climbed from the floor onto the box and then onto the coffee table. I got to her just as she was falling off of the table. Good catch, Mommy! She also has been trying to climb out of the bath tub. I think it is more of a game than anything. Most of the time she is not quite ready to get out of the tub. She loves her bath!
-She is definitely more clingy to me and Andrew these days. She also prefers women most of the time. She has also developed a strong attachment to her grandmothers. It is so neat to see her grow and develop. Andrew and I both feel such a strong bond with her. I absolutely love my job as a mommy. :)
Pictures from each month of her first year of life:
Birth
1 Month Old
2 Months Old
3 Months Old
4 Months Old
5 Months Old
6 Months Old
7 Months Old
8 Months Old
9 Months Old
10 Months Old
11 Months Old
12 Months Old
Night night, Little Girl. Mommy loves you. Always.
No comments:
Post a Comment